K-REACH: Notice of Inventory of Existing Substances Addition

original article from CIRS

On 12 May 2015, Ministry of Environment of Korea published No. 507 Notice, which states that there are 950 chemicals may enter into the Inventory of Existing Substances in Korea. Those chemicals are the chemicals that have been assessed or notified under Toxic Chemical Control Act (TCCA) before the implementation of K-REACH on 1 Jan 2015.

For the purpose of successfully transferring those chemicals to K-REACH as existing substances, MOE has taken different measures toward substances notified in different time ranges.

72 chemicals (No. from 2015-3-6167 to 2015-3-6238) that have finished the hazardous assessment under TCCA during 1 Jan 2012 to 31 Mar 2012 will enter into the Inventory of Existing Substances 3 year after the finish of the assessment.

878 chemicals (No. from 2015-3-6239 to 2015-3-7116) that have finished the hazardous review under TCCA during 1 Jan 2012 to 31 Dec 2014 but have not received the hazardous assessment reports have been agreed to be listed into the Inventory of Existing Substances.

In March 2015, MOE has published news to inform the enterprises that the enterprises who have finished the TCCA notification can submit applications to MOE to request a fast entry of the chemicals into the Inventory of Existing Substances. Once the application passed the review, the applied substances can enter into the inventory within 1 month (this situation applies for the 878 chemicals mentioned above). Substances without notification, according to the measures for transferring period, are required to submit the notifications to NIER before 30 June 2015. The contents of the notification include the amount of manufactured/imported substances for last 3 years, the uses for the substances and etc. NIER will issue a tonnage permission under K-REACH according to the information that the enterprises submitted. If the tonnage or use of the substances has changed in the future, an application according to those changes shall be submitted based on the K-REACH registration.

The main purpose for this notice published by MOE is to inform that, before 21 May 2015, publics can submit comments to MOE for the 950 chemicals. After collecting and reviewing the public comments, a final decision will be made by MOE, and an official announcement will be made according to the decision.

Under K-REACH, before 2020, new substances with amount of manufacturing/importing larger than 0.1 ton per year are required to be registered. For new substances, annual report will be required regardless of the tonnage; for existing substances, registration will be required for certain existing substances and annual report will be required for all the existing substances if the tonnage is larger than 1 ton per year. According to the measures under K-REACH, for the purpose of “one substance, one dossier”, a joint submission of the registration of existing substances is required. New substances are required to be registered individually; testing data can be shared with the previous registrants or the data owners to avoid the vertebrate tests. Different ways of submission have different registration costs.

The management methods for new substances and existing substance are different under K-REACH. The first and the most important thing for enterprises to comply with K-REACH will be the confirmation of substance status (new or existing).

CIRS has acquired the detailed information on the 950 chemicals mentioned above, please contact us if enterprises would like to know whether their substances are listed on the inventory or not. Only after the confirmation of substance status, can enterprises make strategies to do business in Korea.